My work is about uniting two seemingly incompatible effects.? On the surface, my work is about creating a surprising, fun environment that captures people?s imagination and attention.? After the surprise passes, people experience peacefulness as they gaze at the water moving over the stone and hear the (usually) gentle, brook-like sounds of the fountain.?
I love to surprise people with my work so that they forget themselves and have a moment of pure enjoyment.? I?ve explored the surprise factor by cantilevering pieces so that they appear to be leaping out of the water or are about to fall over, balancing huge pieces on tiny points, and carving stone so that it looks like a curved piece of paper that could spring back at any moment, but with water flowing over it.? Integrating multiple elements is another way I create surprise, especially when the pieces fit together like a puzzle, are cut from the same slab so that you can follow the veins across the pieces, or when one piece is hidden by another until you move around or past it.
My work is contemporary/abstract and nearly all site-specific.? It responds to the environment and reflects the client, sometimes telling a story, like Ceremonial Dance created for the Town of Fountain Hills to recall it?s Native American heritage.? Sometimes the piece is just about fun like Window created for Spanish Village ? a big slab of colorful travertine with a long vertical window cut through it.? Kids, and more than a few adults, toss pebbles through the cutout or try to land them in the depression at the bottom of the cut.? Either way the piece (and sometimes a kid) is bathed in water and everybody has a good time.
Meeting challenges is one of the most satisfying parts of my work.? Working with water entails design constraints since water only wants to flow straight down, but sculpture often wants to curve and flow freely.? Then there are the engineering challenges of supporting unbalanced forms, earthquake and hurricane stabilization, and designing so that a 300-pound college kid can climb on a sculpture without it crashing down.? The college kids are harder to deal with than the hurricanes.? My current personal challenge is working with glass. For years I?ve be fascinated by it and I?m now exploring combing glass with stone and with stone and water to create new forms.
The years I spent in the corporate world let me bring a business-like approach to the business side of my art.? Deadlines, working with a team, and managing complex projects and large budgets are second nature to me.? As VP of European and US companies I got to learn how different cultures live, work together, and solve problems successfully.? Living in various countries in Europe and traveling in Africa and Asia have given me a much different perspective on life. Those experiences inform both my art and my life.
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